Dr. David Chao, the team physician for the NFL's San Diego Chargers, sues Smith & Nephew over a botched hip implant that cost him $2.2 million in a malpractice settlement.

A doctor who blames a botched hip implantation on Smith & Nephew (FTSE:SN, NYSE:SNN) is suing the British medical device company to recoup his $2.2 million malpractice loss.

Dr. David Chao, the team physician for the NFL's San Diego Chargers franchise, sued Smith & Nephew in the U.S. District Court for Southern California, alleging that inadequate training and faulty surgical scissors for SNN's Birmingham Hip Resurfacing implant led to the botched surgery on Kathleen Adams in 2007.

Adams sued Chao for negligence, winning a $2.2 million settlement in 2008. Chao wants Smith & Nephew to cover the tab, accusing the company of training him and other doctors "to push the tips of the scissors into tissue in a manner such that the surgeon did not have a view of the tips of the scissor tines (i.e., 'blind' cuts)," according to court documents.